AF is expected today. So far no cramps or anything. An early test a couple days ago was BFN, but that might've truly be way too early to test. This morning, half asleep, I wasted my FMU, so I guess I'll have to wait til tomorrow to see if AF stays away and I get to POAS.
It's a sad thing though that more people here don't stand up for themselves like that. Everyone just says "well, that's how it works " and they think I'm silly for making a fuss over 60 euro. But honestly, if it were 5 euro I would've still been n p/o. You just don't charge people for doing nothing.
People wouldn't accept going to the store, buying only a bread and then getting charged for milk as well. Why the hell would that be acceptable for anything else?
Post by Cheesecake on May 31, 2012 11:58:00 GMT -5
I guess I saw it used a lot and started using it as well, I'm a follower For me, personally, it really is acknowledging that there is so much worse that can happen to people/me. In the end my health issues and such are far, far more important than whatever monetary or car, or job or "luxury" issue ever. So it's almost more to myself. "Sure foodie, you can whine about car mechanics, but think about that when you're in the hospital yet again for surgery, yet again, for your weird combo of 2 kidney issues for which they fly in doctors from other countries. Doesn't seem that important now, does it".
Post by Cheesecake on May 31, 2012 11:39:37 GMT -5
Just got my car back, and I won!
After all that went down this morning, they still tried to stick an extra charge on there. I caught it, I called them out on it and went a little BSC on them for treating me like a girl and trying to get away with overcharging me. It was a charge for reading out the system to see if there were issues. I came in for a routine CHECK which is already crazy expensive, so I'd assume the checking is included in the price of the check, right?
First they tried convincing me I should pay and that 'as a courtesy they didn't charge me for testing my battery'. That's the point where I went truly BSC as I specifically instructed them NOT to test my battery when they tried to sell me a new one this morning.
In the end they removed the extra charge and gave me a 20 percent discount on my wipers and didn't charge anything for topping up my fluids. I honestly think the BSC saved me 20 to 30 percent or so on the total bill.
Besides the while car mechanic thing, today seema good: )
qotd: depends on what time I fly, how ling I'll be gone for and whether there'll be a washer/dryer there. Day and a half before if long trip/ no W/D. Our before leaving if jyst a weekend and U know rhe weather.
I've said it before and will say it again, people are stupid.
Do little kids who don't like their veggies hate vegetarians? Does having a problem with Mexican immigrants mean you think Tex-Mex is icky? I don't eat fish, so I guess I must truly hate the Japanese right? But I do like yakitori, so does that mean I need a shrink. And my friend who hates any type of spicy food, she must be a total right. And the fact that I think bacon makes life better, must absolutely mean I have a problem with muslims and Jews, correct???
It's just food, and people have different tastes. Whatever!
I know, first world problem, but really, there's gotta be a special place in hell reserved for car mechanics.
<rant>
I just brought my car in for it's scheduled maintenance, or well, what they set the computer of my car to. (It's a 25K check up/tune up, which the car wants while I've only driven 10K since the last one. I don't drive enough according to the people who set the computer and make money off me, so if you drive less than 1500KM/month, the system starts speeding up insanely where after you've driven 100KM suddenly you're 2000KM closer to needing maintenance. Evil plot nr 1.)
I come in and have 1 complaint about the car. In super hot weather suddenly the car starts the A/C on it's own without me telling it to while my engine is starting. My engine then stops. It's a stupid system really, it should kick in a few seconds AFTER the engine has started, or only when I turn or leave it on. It's not set that way though, so would they please turn that off.
No ma'am, we can't turn that off, we'll put in a new battery for you though. Uhm, no you won't, I got a new battery at the end of January, a stronger/bigger one than it had before even, so no, I don't need a new battery. It's probably no good anyway, we'll put a new one in. Well, it's still under warranty from the ANWB (Dutch version of AAA) so no, I don't want a new one from you, unless you put it in for free.
Other guy joins
We'll just read out the system, we probably need to fix a lot, there are all kinds of lights blinking. huh, what lights, it didn't do that on the drive over. here, the time and date Yeah, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong, that means I'm lazy and you made setting the time and date unneccesarily complicated.
Guys grumbles and starts setting time and date correctly.
I go over what the scheduled maintenance entails and what I get for my crapload of money (making sure to let them know I don't approve anything besides what's on that sheet of paper without them calling me about it).
Other guy walks by again: It's a 60K maintenance - and you're almost 10K late for that, so you need to add X, Y and Z to the maintenance. Uhm no, It's had it's 60K maintenance, about 10K ago. I just don't drive that much, which is why I'm in for my next 25K maintenance after only 10K. Yeah okay, whatever, but you'll need new spark plugs, because these have 60K on them and that's too much. Unless you screwed with the odometer (I started to get pissy here) or lied at the 60K maintenance, the spark plugs only have 10K on them. They're good for another 3 or 4 years or 50K, whichever comes first.
Guy grumbles more and walks away.
I finally ask if the checking fluids means they'll top them up too, to which he says, yeah, but we can't add that to your quote in advance, as we don't know if and how much fluids we'll use, we'll charge you after we fill it.
They better damn well charge me for the exact amount they used or I'm going home with a bunch of partially full bottles of fluid which I paid for.
Really, I know I'm a girl, I know I'm a blonde, but really, do I look like they dropped me on the head, repeatedly, when I was a baby??? They NEVER do this to DH (while they'd get away with it way easier), why do they insist on trying to screw women out of their money when it comes to cars.
Post by Cheesecake on May 30, 2012 17:18:01 GMT -5
I wonder how much the fact whether you're against homeschooling or a fan or something in between has to do with the quality of schools where you a: grew up yourself, b: are located now/are planning to send your children.
While the Dutch schools keep getting worse and worse (the system is getting more and more adapted to American standards, unfortunately up 'til a few years ago, when you went to University you were expected to finish at LEAST 1 master's in 4 years. Now, after 4 years, you're expected to finish your Bachelor's and each Master's takes another year or 2. DH actually received 3 Masters 4 years after graduating high school - and he went to an internationally known Technical University.), the Dutch still score very high internationally at level of education. The US schools, on average, score insanely low for a first world country.
I absolutely realize there are differences per school and school district, but the National average is what it is. I can totally see that if you grew up/live in a school district that scores on the low end in the US, your thoughts about education can be completely different than if you live near the prime schools in NL or Norway, South Korea (or the US) for that matter.
And regarding the 'just' comment I made before re: decent education. I do truly feel it is that easy. Spend enough money on education. I know the richest county in Colorado (one of the richest counties in the US) has 40 kids to a class and in the middle of winter they're not allowed to heat the classrooms above 60 (or even lower - a friend of mine was a teacher there) because the school can't afford it. The people just refuse to spend money on education. No wonder schools suck and people want to take their kids out of school.
So JUST spend more money, JUST make classes smaller, JUST make sure there are decent materials and properly educated teachers. It truly isn't that hard. Spending more money on public schools is still cheaper than sending kids to private schools, or giving up a job to SAH with the kids to school them.
In NL you can only get permission to homeschool if your child has serious (mental) health related issues wht hw;she can't go to a regular or one of the many types of special ed schools. It invilves lots of testung beforehand and the dept of education will watch you like a hawk!
And I think that's a good thing! I think homeschooling should be a last resort solution. And the govt should just make sure they provide decent education.
Post by Cheesecake on May 29, 2012 16:34:00 GMT -5
Make use of the fact that you can get white asparagus. Boil until tender, serve wirh ham, chopped egg, melted butter and parsley. Oh and boiled (new) potatoes.
I do all kinds of salads this season. I did a warm-ish pasta salad tonight. Tortellini, some white Turkish cheese, tomatoes, steamed broccoli - slughrly cooled, olive oil, black pepper, toss and eat. Yummmm!
Another favorite is tomato, bell peppers, cilantro, avicado, maybe some spring onions yumm, yumm, yumm!
Post by Cheesecake on May 29, 2012 11:17:58 GMT -5
I remember a very posh British guy visiting my mom's office in the US (I was there). All the American girls were telling him "Oh wow, I love your accent". After the third girl complimented him on his accent he got fed up and stated "As a matter of fact, I do not have an accent. Your accent, on the other hand, is absolutely horrible and you should do something about that!" The look on the girls' faces was absolutely priceless.
The absolute best part was when one particularly stupid intern continued as she didn't get the joke/insult. She was all "huh, what do you mean. You DO have an accent, I don't. My English is perfect!". Dude then started explaining the history of the US from his perspective - "You probably don't know this, but this country used to belong to my country. yadayadayada... If instead of helping you the French would've just taken over here, you probably would speak a bastardized version of French instead of insisting that what you speak is English."
Post by Cheesecake on May 29, 2012 10:20:58 GMT -5
The absolute worst names I ever heard were not hard to pronounce or anything, but naming your (Dutch) twin boys Boy and Guy has to be the klassiest thing ever!
Oh, and I had a classmate once, a girl who's parents were immigrants from Vietnam, her name was Boi. Yes, pronounced Boy. Officially it was Boi - Boi, but she shortened it to Boi herself. That's just painful, a girl/woman having to introduce herself "Hi, I'm, Boy".
No, I'm not asking you if that means I'm pregnant I do hope it does, though!
My boobs never really get tender/sore around menstruation and they are super sore (no, tender is definitely not the word here) now. I started running last week, so that could be it, but I'm hoping it's and early symptom.
Please cross your fingers for me that AF doesn't show this Friday, or for a while thereafter ;D because that would be an absolute terrific reason for this soreness. If it's because of something else I did, it's just super annoying!
Oh, this is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine! I actually still live within the city of Amsterdam. Yes, the outer edge - when I look out of my 2nd floor windows, I can see neighboring towns - but still within the city of Amsterdam. One of the main tram lines that goes from central station through the center, through the most popular area (by the Vondelpark for instance) comes to my house. Tram, not subway, not train, tram - which is considered shorter-distance-public-transport. People keep telling me I live too far away. When we lived halfway closer to the center (really, just 1 stop past very popular area) people kept saying we were soooo far away. We were not even 5 minutes from the Vondelpark, but no, since it wasn't the actual center, but a less popular (and therefor more affordable, nicer/bigger houses etc) neighborhood people kept moaning about how far it was. (previous apartment had 3 of the city's main tramlines, 1 of the city's 4 subway lines, and 4 different busses going all over the city within a 2-3 minute walk radius.
I moved to my apartment before that from a very popular/high-end neighborhood (the area Hey Y'all always recommends where I had a tiny 300 sqf apartment) to the north part of town (where I had a 700sqf apartment which about 15 percent cheaper). Everyone kept telling me that it was terrible, that I was moving sooooo far away etc. Thruth was I was 8 minutes from central station if I happened to just miss the ferry. If I just made it, it was 3 minutes, so 5-10 minutes max to everywhere/anywhere within the center. The ferry was free and ran 24/7 and only took about 30 seconds. The old neighborhood way definitely way further from the center - whether it was by bike or by PT. The fact that it was across the water just made people decide it was far away. People are stupid, I tell ya!
I guess that when you choose not to live where the cool kids are, people just don't want to take the effort. They suck!
Pretty much English 95% of the time. I'm trying to get back into French and speak French to DD a fair amount. I am a bad Dutch person and not really putting much effort into teaching DD Dutch. We do listen to some Dutch kids music though and she can now sing "zo gaat de molen"... It's very cute. She knows a lot more French though. My sister was just here for a week so now she also says "Doei" and "dus.....". She already knew "drop" (dutch black licorice) and loves it and kept asking her auntie for drop and got a lot of that over the past week!
Teaching DD Dutch here in the US is a bit tough. I have been here so long that my Dutch isn't great (lots of translating directly from English to Dutch) and there are pretty much no resources here, not even online. I also don't know any other Dutch people here (no luck on any Dutch stuff on meetup.com in the state). And I must admit I don't find it a pretty language (sorry fellow Dutchies) and pretty much everyone there speaks English (including my family).
I think you're pretty far away from the Denver metro area right? I know there's actually a Dutch school (after school, it's all o-fishul and extra credits and stuff though) close to Boulder. Also the Netherlands-American Society of the Rockies is pretty darn active (I've been to a bunch of events when I visit my parents. It's always fun. They have bitterballen at the new years reception and they do a rijsttafel potluck and celebrate Queen's Day and drink Oranjebitter (yuck) and watch soccer together at the cheeky monk. Stuff like that. Half the people there speak Dutch okay to fluent, the other half suck at Dutch or don't even speak it at all. If at all doable, you should check it out. It truly is a fun group!
I know they've had events in Parker, Boulder, Denver and Arvada ('cause that's where I've been).
Sorry to hijack post - just figured I'd get this out there :-)
In a spray bottle, mix one tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of dish soap, and the rest of the bottle fill it with water. If you spray it on the ants, they die right away. Later, I sprayed around the room, a few times a day and two days later they were gone.
Tried this tonight after you posted it, and it's the best solution I've tried so far. My ants are immune to everything - I've tried every single type of poison or cleaning product available - nothing killed them. However this killed a bunch of them. Yay!!!!
Post by Cheesecake on May 28, 2012 15:49:57 GMT -5
About 90 percent Dutch and 5 percent English and 5 percent Italian - or something like that. As soon as we have a child we hope to change this (or I hope) to 33/33/33 I guess (wanting to raise our children tri-lingual.)
Post by Cheesecake on May 28, 2012 15:44:40 GMT -5
Well I'm not waiting to O, but am in my 2WW, but I'll give it a go. I've been exercising really well since this week, so I feel good about myself. Plus I've been eating really well and have been taking my PNV's, so besides making sure we do it during the fertile window, I guess it's out of my hands :-)
CD: 22
# of Cycles TTC: This is the 1st
What you're doing?: Checking CM, will start temping next cycle, excercise, eat well.
How you feel about this cycle?: No idea, first cycle trying so I have no idea what my body does.
GTKY: Simple question - Favorite color? No favorite actually. Black is the color I wear most, but I like reds and purples and greens and... well, no favorite colors.